Editorial: Withholding judgment for now

Much has been made of the video that shows a Rolesville High School Resource officer picking up a student and throwing her to the floor in the midst of what looks like a fight taking place at the school. School system officials and the Rolesville Police Department are investigating the incident to see find out what happened and whether the officer should be punished for his actions.

At this point, honestly, it’s too early to know the answers to those questions, although that has not stopped people from weighing in on the matter with their opinions about how best to punish the officer.

At this point, the public has seen a short seven-second snippet of video and the only thing that is clear is that the officer did pick up the student and throw her to the ground before picking her up and leading her away. We don’t know what precipitated that event. We don’t know if the student somehow provoked the matter or made things worse.

If the officer did, indeed, overreact, there should be some repercussions for his actions. If he was following training and protocol for how to react given the full set of circumstances then he doesn’t deserve to be chastised.

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Without a doubt, the greatest part of this newspaper gig is getting to meet people. Some are in the community’s upper crust. Others are barely hanging on because of all the personal baggage they carry. Most folks fall somewhere in the middle. Some are newsmakers by virtue of their position in public life. Others aren’t public figures by any definition you could imagine.